


Inkbrush

by Farasha



Category: Loveless
Genre: Community: kink_bingo, Future Fic, M/M, what if
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-31
Updated: 2009-08-31
Packaged: 2017-10-03 16:34:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Farasha/pseuds/Farasha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Canon what-if following chapter 78.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inkbrush

_Our name is Loveless._

It echoed in his head in the first moments when he woke up, in the last seconds before he fell asleep. Ritsuka knew there was something stunningly significant about it - knew it because of the rush of confusing power he had felt threatening to overtake him when Soubi said it.

There hadn't been time to discuss it then, not with Bloodless in their face and the hardest battle they had ever faced ahead of them. Ritsuka could sense the vital need to get Kio back. Soubi didn't have very many friends, after all, and Kio meant something to him, even if he frequently tried to deny it.

That battle had been the worst, wrenching parts of Ritsuka's soul apart. He wanted to find Seimei, wanted desperately for him to say that everything over the past few days had been nothing but a bad dream, for there to be a perfectly logical explanation for faking his own death and running away, leaving Ritsuka behind. But if Bloodless had done nothing else, they had made Ritsuka face his deepest fear; that the Seimei he knew was a lie.

"Ritsuka?"

Ritsuka's eyes slid open slowly. He sat up, the blankets pooling around his waist, and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Are we ready to go?"

"Kio isn't awake yet," Soubi answered, coming to sit on the bed next to him. "But they've left."

Ritsuka twisted to look up at him. "You've been watching all night?" he asked.

"Ritsuka wanted to know when they left so we could follow them," Soubi said, like it was the most natural thing in the world to lose a night's sleep because of a passing comment Ritsuka made. Ritsuka dropped his head into his hands and squeezed his eyes shut to stave off the headache he knew was coming.

"I didn't mean you had to wait up all night," he said. "You could have asked Natsuo and Youji-"

"I did," Soubi said reasonably.

Ritsuka decided that he didn't want to know what they had said. Probably something rude, knowing them. "We should get going. Wake Kio up. I'll get the other two."

It still gave Ritsuka chills that Soubi moved to do what he said without a single argument. It just wasn't right.

They caught up with Bloodless not too far outside of the town, but at Kio's suggestion, they kept far enough back that the car wouldn't be seen and recognized. Kio drove - Soubi slept in the front seat, long legs stretched out into the floorboards. When Bloodless stopped for the night, so did they, maintaining as much distance as they could in a tiny town with only one inn. That night, Ritsuka slept in Soubi's arms, cradled in the passenger seat of the car, with Natsuo and Youji in a pile in the backseat and Kio keeping watch.

The words echoed in Ritsuka's ears as Soubi shook him awake the next morning with the sun barely creeping over the horizon, switching places with Kio. That night, the stop was big enough that they could bunk down in actual rooms instead of their car.

Natsuo and Youji disappeared halfway through the night - nobody knew where they had gone and nobody really cared, as long as they were back by morning. Kio left for his own room to get some sleep, leaving Soubi and Ritsuka with the watch. The room had a window that overlooked the other inn, giving them a vantage point.

"Do you think they know we're following them?" Ritsuka asked. He carded his fingers slowly through Soubi's hair from where the man sat at his feet, leaning back against Ritsuka's knees.

"I'm sure they do," Soubi said, his voice rumbling against Ritsuka's legs.

"Why do you think so?"

"Bloodless must have sensed Natsuo and my system behind them," Soubi answered.

"So why haven't they stopped to confront us?" Ritsuka asked. Soubi was silent - well, that was fine, Soubi was usually silent when it came to anything that could help Ritsuka find Seimei. And moments later, it didn't matter, because he answered his own question. "They want us to follow them," he said. Soubi still didn't answer. "It makes sense... Seimei came to Seven Voices looking for me. He took Kio to make us come looking for him." Ritsuka shook his head, frustrated. "If he wanted to see me, why didn't he just come home?"

Soubi had gone still at his feet, rigid. Ritsuka didn't know if it was his own apprehension he was feeling or some echo of Soubi's emotions - it seemed like they had gotten closer and closer since their fight with Nisei at the academy. "Soubi," Ritsuka said, standing.

"Yes?" Soubi asked, making no move to do the same.

"What happened during our last battle? When you said _our_ name was-"

"Is," Soubi corrected quickly, and Ritsuka felt something like a shudder on his spine.

"-is Loveless?" Ritsuka finished like nothing had happened.

"I'm a blank Fighter," Soubi answered. "I'm meant to take the place of a Fighter who is missing or killed. Beloved - Seimei's Fighter has appeared, and Seimei has a bond with him, which means I've been cut loose." Soubi's hand went to the bandages around his neck, and Ritsuka reached out and covered it.

"What does that mean?" he asked.

Soubi paused for a long moment, looking up at him, his face unreadable. "I could be Loveless," he said.

"My brother's name... B-e-l-o-v-e-d... what does it mean?"

"It means 'one who is loved,'" Soubi answered. "The opposite of yours."

Ritsuka's ears went flat to his head. "Do you still have it here?" he asked, tugging at the hand that covered Soubi's bandages. Soubi hesitated, then slowly unwound them, revealing the familiar pattern of crisscrossing barbed wire... but no name. "It's gone! How can - how long-"

"It disappeared when the bond was severed," Soubi said. "When I fought Nisei."

Ritsuka sat down heavily on the floor, one hand going out almost in a trance to trace the raised scar tissue around Soubi's throat. He had been horrified when he had seen it for the first time, imagining how much it must have hurt. But the scars and the name had become as much a part of Soubi to him as his glasses and his long blonde hair. Soubi swallowed against his fingers and Ritsuka looked up to find that his expression was carefully blank - but the look in his eyes behind his glasses made Ritsuka's ears twitch nervously. "What... what happens now?"

Soubi blinked slowly. "I could be Loveless."

Ritsuka's ears pricked up, and he gnawed on his lip.

_Our name is Loveless._

He shivered all over, flushed. The skin of his ears prickled and he was sure his tail had puffed up. Soubi's throat moved against his fingers again, made him feel dizzy. "How?" he asked, barely realizing he was asking it. He couldn't look away from Soubi's eyes, like he was looking into the eyes of a viper.

Soubi grabbed his hand and folded it unresisting into a pointed finger. Silently, he lowered it to the empty space below the scars and traced it there. L-O-V-E-

The skin of Ritsuka's whole hand pricked in Soubi's grasp, and his cheeks flamed. Soubi finished writing the word and leaned forward, still holding Ritsuka's hand, until his breath was in Ritsuka's ear as he said, "You have to put it there."

Ritsuka swallowed hard, glad he was sitting down. His knees felt like they wouldn't support him. "Write it there?" he asked. "Just write it?"

Soubi went still, pulled back a bit, looking at Ritsuka like he was something strange - the way he looked at Ritsuka when Ritsuka did something totally normal. "Yes," he said.

Ritsuka looked around the room, trying to find something. "Did you bring a paintbrush?" he asked Soubi suddenly.

For no reason Ritsuka could figure out, Soubi started to chuckle quietly. "Yes, I did." He rose from where he had Ritsuka pinned against him and Ritsuka let out another full-body shiver, snatching his hand back and stuffing them in his pockets. It wasn't fair that Soubi could always turn his head around like that.

Soubi came back with a paintbrush and a small container of black ink. "You learned how to write English in school, right?" He had folded himself down to the floor, leaning back against the chair again.

Ritsuka scowled at him. "Of course I did." The brush was already wet - he pulled it to the ink and leaned forward, setting the tip of it to Soubi's neck.

_Our name is Loveless._

He felt Soubi's arms come up, clasping loosely around his waist. A weird, settling feeling came over him, and he had to take a deep breath.

L-O-V-E-L-E-

"One 'S' or two?" Ritsuka whispered without realizing why he was doing so. Soubi's breath let out in a shivery sigh and Ritsuka felt warm all over - Soubi felt it too. It was like when Soubi held him in a battle, like every time Soubi's heartbeat against his back let him know that it was alright to be afraid.

"Two," Soubi said, his deep voice practically vibrating the air around Ritsuka.

-S-S

Ritsuka barely lifted the brush away when he was hit with a feeling that drove his breath right out of his lungs. An overwhelming - _something_, something like what happened when-

"Our name is Loveless."

This time it was out loud again, and Ritsuka stared down at Soubi's face, his eyes wide. Deep in the bottom of his heart where he knew things - things like his brother loved him no matter what, even if he was weird about it - he knew that what Soubi had just said was true. Their name was Loveless.

The brush fell to the carpet, the ink on the end splattering across it. The name Ritsuka had just written seemed like it was soaked into Soubi's skin, like his skin was paper. Ritsuka smudged his thumb across the last 'S' and it didn't even feel wet. It just felt like skin.

Soubi slid his hands up Ritsuka's back and leaned him back, laying him out on the carpet. Ritsuka still hadn't caught his breath, and clung to the front of his shirt, his eyes still wide and then squeezing closed as Soubi kissed him, his body covering Ritsuka like a blanket. Ritsuka's hands went to his chest, pushing him back to stare at the letters across Soubi's skin.

"Is Ritsuka happy?" Soubi asked, looking down at Ritsuka with a caution in his eyes that Ritsuka hated seeing.

"Yes," he said, blushing red as Soubi kissed him again, hungry and wet and _wanting_. It had been like and unlike this before - he had never felt so much like letting Soubi strip him bare and-

He shuddered and pushed Soubi away again, gasping. "I can't," he said, bright red with his ears held at an uncertain angle.

"Ritsuka?" Soubi asked, puzzled.

"We should be watching the window," Ritsuka said, rising to cover his embarrassment. "To make sure they don't leave without us."

Soubi smiled in that unreadable way he had. "Whatever Ritsuka wants," he said. Ritsuka scowled, flopping back into the chair with a huff, turning his head to watch out the window. They hadn't left yet. There was a lot of time ahead of them.

Soubi made no move to wind the bandages back around his neck, and Ritsuka didn't remind him.


End file.
